Monthly Archives: October 2012

ORMSBY, Helen (1846-1905)

25 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by in Brickrow Farm, Ayr, Scotland, Ormsby Family

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[for Helen’s parents and siblings see page ‘ORMSBY’ at top of screen]

[this post last edited, new information and / or images added 18 March 2013]

Helen ORMSBY was born on 19 July 1846 in St. Quivox, Ayrshire, Scotland, and died 18 February 1905 in Gibbsyard, Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland.

Helen was the eldest child of James ORMSBY and his wife Helen STEEL. The St. Quivox Old Parochial Record (OPR) listed her, although the handwriting doesn’t make clear whether she was born or baptised on the19 July of 1846.

 Ormesby, Helen, lawful daughter of James Ormesby & Helen Steel 19 July 1846, St. Quivox

The forty years covered by census records from 1851 to 1891 recorded that Helen lived at Brickrow Farm with her parents and then her widowed mother and siblings after her father’s death. She attended school for the first sixteen years of her life and then after the 1871 census her occupation, listed as ‘farmer’s daughter’, indicated she worked on farm activities at Brickrow (cooking, tending the kitchen vegetable garden, feeding the animals and chickens, working as a dairy maid and so on) .

Photo above: Brickrow Farm;  this photograph is now in the collection of an Ormsby family descendant who still lives in Ayrshire, Scotland.

By the 1901 census Helen, (no occupation given), her mother [Helen STEEL] , brothers Andrew [Andrew ORSMBY] and Henry [Henry ORMSBY] and 10 year nephew James Henry [James Henry ORMSBY] lived at Gibbsyard, Auchincruive. They likely moved there at the time of the marriage of Helen’s brother John [John ORSMBY] to Helen Ramsay Muir [Helen Ramsay MUIR] in 1894.

Helen, 59, died at Gibbsyard in 1905 of ‘acute bronchitis’, some days’. She predeceased her mother by eight years. The informant of her death was her brother John who lived a short distance away at Brickrow Farm.

ORMSBY, James (About 1807-1871)

22 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by in Brickrow Farm, Ayr, Scotland, Ormsby Family

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[for Ormsby family see page ‘ORMSBY’ at top of screen]

[this post last edited, new information and / or images added 18 March 2013]

James ORMSBY was born in Ireland about 1807. I have not yet found anything that indicates which part of Ireland the family came from, and the only information discovered to date is that James’ father’s name was John ORMSBY [see post 21 October 2012]. More research is required. James moved from Ireland to Ayrshire and in 1841 he worked as an agricultural labourer in Whitletts Village, St. Quivox Parish in Ayrshire. Four years later, aged 38, he married 24 year old Helen STEEL.

James seems to have been a man of ambition. By 1848 he held the position of Land Stewart at the Auchincruive estate and lived at Brickrow. In the 1851 census the occupants of Brickrow were James and his wife Helen, and their three children Helen, Andrew and James, James’ mother-in-law Helen STEEL (maiden surname McMURTRIE) and two brothers-in-law Richard STEEL and Andrew STEEL. The farming operation also required two agricultural labourers and a house servant. This is confirmed by the Scottish Post Office Directory for 1851-1852 that listed ‘Ormsby, James, overseer’ at Brickrow Farm. On the 30th November 1855 James took out two Endowment Policies, for a total of £200 with the St. Patrick Assurance Company of Ireland, perhaps an indication that he returned to Ireland from time to time. In the 1861 census the size of the farm is not given, however by then the two Steel brothers, Richard and Andrew had left Brickrow.

At the time of the April 1871 census James was a farmer of “50 acres arable” at Brickrow. He died, 64 years old, on October 12, 1871 rather gruesomely of ‘internal cancer and also in lower jaw, duration for a year or more’. His eldest son, 23 year old Andrew ORMSBY, was the informant on his death registration.

After his death an inventory of James’ personal estate was conducted. This document described James as “sometime Land Stewart, afterwards Farmer and Cattle Dealer residing at Brickrow”. The inventory of his personal property (“household furniture, Farm Stock and Crops, Implements of Husbandry, body clothes and other effects belonging to the deceased”) was valued at £572. Two accounts in the Bank of Scotland in Ayr, total value £165, were also included in the inventory, as was the £50 owed by “Archibald Mair, Farmer, Craigbrae”. Preliminary research shows that there was a family connection with Mair, although the specifics are not clear and require more research.

The inventory also identified the two separate £100 Endowment Policies with the St. Patrick Assurance Company of Ireland that James had taken out in 1855. One Endowment Policy was assigned to his son James ORMSBY and one to his son Richard Steele ORMSBY on the condition they lived and “attained the age of 21 years”. In James’ case this was 16 November 1871, and for Richard 19 March 1874. The inventory identifies only the two endowment policies, none was purchased for his daughter Helen ORMSBY, or his eldest son Andrew ORMSBY. James may have wanted his eldest son Andrew to take over Brickrow Farm and the cattle dealing business? His youngest sons, John ORMSBY and Henry ORMSBY were also not included, perhaps because they were not born when James took out the endowment policies in 1855. James may have meant to establish some policy for them and never got around to it, or didn’t have the money to do so.

After James’ death, the farming operation depended on James’ widow Helen, and their two sons Andrew (23) and John (15). James’ son Richard had already left home and was not interested in farming, and James’ son James may have left shortly after his father’s death. James (the son) would have received his £100 from his father’s will on his 21st birthday 16 November 1871 and may have used this to start a new life.

Helen, as the family’s Head, and her sons Andrew and John worked industriously with the help of some servants and by 1881 Brickrow Farm increased in size by 26 acres. Helen also cared for her mother Helen STEEL who had lived with the Ormsby family from 1851 until her death at age 90 in 1872.

Helen (James’ widow) lived at Brickrow, probably until the 1894 marriage of her son John to Helen Ramsay MUIR when she, her daughter Helen and sons Andrew and Henry and grandson James Henry ORMSBY moved across the road to Gibbsyard, Auchincruive, Ayrshire. In 1901 Helen, Head of the family, lived at Gibbsyard “living on own means”.

92 year old Helen died of cardiac failure at Gibbsyard 26 January 1913. She is buried in the Ormsby family plot in St. Quivox Parish church cemetery.

Ormsby family graves in St. Quivox Parish, Photo taken by the author 2003

ORMSBY, John (About 1787 – ?)

21 Sunday Oct 2012

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[for Ormsby family see page ‘ORMSBY’ at top of screen]

Although sources do not agree on the origins of the ORMSBY family name, it is an ancient one. Similar elements of most stories say the first Ormsby (or Ormesby) arrived in England with William the Conqueror. Ormsby’s likely moved to Ireland due to the religious conflicts during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Several branches of the family settled in the counties of Roscommon, Sligo, and Mayo.

While it is not known from which county the Ormsby family in this story came, John Ormsby was from Ireland.

At this time little information is known about John ORMSBY, his wife or children other than his son James ORMSBY [see post 22 October 2012]. It is assumed at this point that the family lived in Ireland as John’s son James was born in that country about 1807. John would have married before James’ birth in 1807. If John was twenty years old (an estimate) at the time of his marriage he would have been born about 1787.

The ORMSBY family of Brickrow Farm, Ayrshire, Scotland

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Brickrow Farm, Ayr, Scotland, Ormsby Family

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As described in ‘ABOUT THEIROWNSTORIES’ [see page at top of screen] I became intrigued by an inherited box of nameless photographs. I have always thought of my great-grandmother Jane (MUIR) WATSON as the person responsible for keeping this collection of photographs together and safe. My great-grandfather Thomas WATSON was, according to family stories, a ‘dour Scot’, not easily given to nostalgia or sentimentality. I cannot imagine him taking the time or trouble to maintain this collection of photographs safely through years of moving from farm to farm in Scotland, a long, sea-sick inducing voyage to Canada, and the primitive pioneer farm living conditions in the prairies of Saskatchewan.

Why was this collection of photographs so important to my great-grandmother Jane (also called ‘Jean’)? With research I learned that both my Muir and Watson great-grandparents came from large extended families in Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland. I learned that my great-grandmother had nine siblings; seven brothers and two sisters. When the Watson family immigrated to Saskatchewan in 1910, of the Muir family only Jean’s elderly parents (James MUIR and Helen MCNAB), one sister (Helen Ramsay (MUIR) ORMSBY), and two brothers (George Kennedy MUIR and Gilbert MUIR ) remained in Scotland – the rest were either dead or had emigrated to countries such as England, Australia, Africa or eastern Canada. Immigration to a new country in those days meant an almost certain permanent move; rarely did people have the money to return home for a visit. It is likely that Jean was homesick for Scotland and worried about her elderly parents whom she assumed she would never see again. Based on family photographs and records it appears that those who remained in Scotland were close, visited and attended weddings and family events together. Jean and her family were missed and her siblings stayed in touch by sending photographs and postcards commemorating family events whether happy (weddings) or sad (deaths). I believe that many of the photographs in the old box were sent by Helen to her sister Jean in Saskatchewan. I believe that the sisters were close and that I may learn more about the personality of my great-grandmother if I understand Helen’s life.

What was my great-grandmother’s sister Helen like? Family stories report that, in her later years, Helen was a domineering and unpleasant woman, accustomed to having her own way. When her youngest child Henry (‘Harry’), who had lived with his mother for 36 years, married, Harry’s sister Margaret took a job as a housekeeper in another town and took their mother with her, to relieve the situation and give Harry and his wife a chance to live on their own at Brickrow Farm without Helen’s domineering presence. Were there circumstances in her life that formed her character?

Photo below left: Jane (Jean) (Muir) Watson, 10 June, 1914, Lemberg, Saskatchewan, Canada. Photo below right: Jean’s sister Helen Ramsay (Muir) Ormsby, October 24, 1924, Ayr, Scotland. The specific dates and locations of the photos are known since each was taken at a family wedding.

The only photograph (right) I have seen of Helen was taken October 24, 1924 at the wedding of her daughter Jean. Helen, 50, appeared to be a worried and unhappy woman, however a son had recently died, she had just buried her brother-in-law and her father, 81, was gravely ill and died less than three months later. By 1924 she had already buried four children. While a formal unsmiling demeanour was required in photographs of that time, her life was filled with many challenges.

She may have even envied her sister Jean. Although Jean’s life in pioneering Saskatchewan was not easy, the move had been successful. Her children were healthy, were land owners, had married, had children. This had signaled a new start for the Watson family, a start that Tom Watson said he “wished he had taken 20 years earlier”.

While I started with the intent of telling the story of Helen Ramsay MUIR and her husband John ORMSBY, it soon became apparent that her story could only be told in the context of the whole Ormsby family and Brickrow Farm. When 20 year old Helen married 38 year old John and moved to Brickrow in 1894, three generations of Ormsby family had already lived at the farm for at least 43 years. There is no doubt that expectations and traditions had already been established. Her life at Brickrow for the next 53 years was interwoven with Ormsby family events and Brickrow Farm.

Searching for information on the Ormsby family led to a rich treasure trove of material, much of it unknown to me and I believe others in the family. One brother of John Ormsby left Scotland to join the excitement of the New Zealand gold rush in the late 1800s. Additional research revealed unknown stories of two Scottish brothers who were born in the early 1890’s, who ventured abroad, were caught up in the First World War, who survived and the direction their lives took later. The research, which involved accessing civil registrations, military records, electoral records, passenger lists and cemetery records, identified trails the brothers took through Scotland, England, Singapore, Malaya, Australia, Turkey, Egypt and France.

It was against this canvas of world and Ormsby family events and activity that Helen and John Ormsby lived their lives. This then [and the next posts], is the story of Helen Ramsay Muir, her husband John Ormsby and the Ormsby family of Brickrow Farm.